Reptiles’ debut EP begins with a snarled description of a depraved dame. It’s delivered with just a curled lip and a single buzzing guitar. A bracing burst of noise arrives with the next verse – a menacingly delivered: “I’ve been cruel to my woman… I’ve been cruel to one I once loved.”
Both instances introduce us to intriguing characters involved in compelling and curious circumstances. These circumstances are escorted by suitably dark and sinister music. However the scent quickly goes cold. In subsequent verses, we get no further fresh leads about any more of this nefarious activity. Even the music lightens a few tones to fade out with some relatively inoffensive buzzing guitar.
This close-but-no-cigar situation occurs on a number of songs on this six-track set. Reptiles are able to steer songs into some potentially challenging places, yet they tend to just fall short of making them really gripping. The half dozen tracks kick in at a curt 18 minutes and have a real naive, choppy intensity, whether through grabbing for choruses too soon or overly relying on the repeating of some slightly clumsy couplets.
Bughouse begins with an incessant throbbing riff reminiscent of the Scientist’s Swampland. It manages to “crawl under your skin (man)” but doesn’t quite reach the same hypnotic and melodic highs. Fire in the Hole sees a raucous rumbling emerge from the rhythm section to set a particularly brooding tone which simmers over the last three tracks.
Those wanting a ready reference point should think of the various musical projects of Nick Cave, when he was surrounded by a cast of miscreant Melbourne musos before he broadened his horizons to Berlin. Reptiles at times come close to matching some of that period’s manic musical intensity. However, it lacks a little in the uncontrolled abandon and the experiences of knife-edge lives to give it the same abrasiveness and potency. The band’s lyrics concern your more gruesome slasher-film horror scenarios, rather than the real-life emotional ones.
Smell My Skin is available through MGM.
